PEACE IS ELUSIVE IN CROWN HEIGHTS

Police try more involvement; neighbors say city’s help needed

“We cried out for help,” said Ruben Almader, a former Crown Heights resident who still owns property in the neighborhood and plans to move back. “We were promised it was getting better, and it hasn’t.”

About a year ago, after several of the shootings, Almader and other Crown Heights residents met with city officials in a community summit. But Almader said last week that little has come from it.

Some streetlights were added, but not enough, and there has been little response to the community’s request for security cameras to help police monitor gang activity and for more places for activities to give teens alternatives to gangs, Almader said.

“We don’t have the support of the City Council,” said Maria Russell, president of the Eastside Neighborhood Association, which has been working with Crown Heights residents to deal with common problems.

Eastside is another troubled community with a history of gang violence, but the flare-ups there have been less frequent and less public than in Crown Heights.

“They (City Council) don’t even recognize that there are problems in these neighborhoods. I don’t see the support. We need more resources,” Russell said.

She faults the council for cutting back on funding for city libraries and closing one of the city’s two swimming pools.

“I know we need to balance the budget, but sometimes it’s taking from areas like that where you see people suffer, mainly kids,” Russell said.

Officials seek answers

Mayor Jim Wood and several council members say they’re well aware of the problems in Crown Heights and Eastside.

“I’m not sure anything can be done that will solve the problem, because I’m not sure any city in the United States has been able to address the gang problem,” Wood said. “I don’t know how to stop it (gang violence) unless the family members and the rest of the community gets involved to help.”

Councilman Gary Felien said he finds the ongoing violence in Crown Heights frustrating.

“I would certainly support any effort that has a reasonable expense and a reasonable chance,” Felien said. “It’s certainly not my field of expertise. I can’t speak with any authority about what the problems are.”

Like Wood, Councilman Jerry Kern said, “It’s a community problem.”

“It seems to ebb and flow. Something sets somebody off, and it’s either an incident at random or there’s retaliation, and things get scaled up,” Kern said. “We really need the community to be fully involved. If they suspect something’s going wrong, they need to contact police.”

Oceanside Police Capt. Ray Belcher, who oversees the department’s gang detectives and gang suppression team, said some of the violence in Crown Heights actually originates in Eastside as a result of the long-standing rivalry between an Eastside gang and a Crown Heights gang.

“The Eastside is more of the aggressors — they tend to be less of the victims of criminal activity,” Belcher said. “The situations that have been occurring in Crown Heights, they’re not driven by Crown Heights people. They’re usually people coming in and doing the shooting and the stabbings to Crown Heights people.”